The five options clinics use
- Staff the evenings yourself. Extend a receptionist's hours or hire for a night shift. Count the salary, visa, insurance and leave cover. You also only get the languages that person speaks, and someone still has to sleep.
- A do-it-yourself WhatsApp tool. Monthly software, plus someone on your team to build and maintain the flows. Booking is often a link to a calendar, not a real diary entry.
- An agency-built chatbot. Usually a setup fee plus a monthly fee, quoted after a scoping call. Ask exactly what's included: booking, deposits, reminders, languages.
- Meta's free assistant. Not an option for clinics. Meta lists health as ineligible.
- A done-for-you front desk like in8. It answers, books, reminds and brings patients back on your own number, for one monthly price.
Hidden costs to ask about
- Setup or "onboarding" fees, and whether they're refundable.
- Fees per message, per lead or per booking, or a share of your revenue.
- Who pays WhatsApp's own messaging charges.
- Languages, extra locations or reporting sold as add-ons.
- Minimum contract length, and what it costs to leave.
- Your team's time. A tool someone has to maintain isn't free.
Does it pay? A one-minute sum
monthly cost ÷ what one new booking is worth to you = bookings needed a month to break even
Use your own figure for what a booking is worth, whether that's the first visit or a typical course. If your front desk would need to win back more bookings than you currently lose after hours, it won't pay. If it needs fewer, it will. To see what you lose after hours, use our calculator with your numbers, or test your clinic at 9pm.
After it goes live, judge it on one thing: confirmed bookings in your diary that came through it. Not messages sent, not "engagement".
What in8 costs
- AED 3,900 a month, everything included: answering WhatsApp in English, Arabic and Russian, booking into your diary, deposit links, reminders, missed-call text-back, bringing patients back with your OK, refilling cancelled slots, the Hub and a monthly report.
- Extra locations: AED 2,400 each. Setup: AED 2,500, free on a 12-month plan.
- No per-lead or per-booking fees, and no share of your revenue.
- Money back: no confirmed booking in your first 14 days? We refund your first month (setup not included).
- Cancel any time, even on the 12-month plan.
Quick answers
How much does in8 cost?
AED 3,900 a month, everything included. Extra locations add AED 2,400 each. Setup is AED 2,500, free on a 12-month plan. There are no per-lead or per-booking fees, and you can cancel any time.
How do I know if an AI receptionist pays for itself?
Divide the monthly cost by what one new booking is worth to your clinic. That's how many extra bookings a month it needs to win to break even. Then check the real number of bookings it made each month.